A Florida woman attacked a TSA officer in a bizarre attempt to bypass security and enter an airport’s secure area.
Angela McNaughton, 28, of Orlando, Florida, drove up to curbside check-in at Orlando International Airport on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.
She demanded an employee to park her truck and check her in for her flight. When the employee couldn’t find her reservation, she said “have the (expletive) thing towed,” and entered the airport near the airlines/southwest-airlines-begins-operating-new-flights.html” target=”_self” rel=”nofollow”>Southwest Airlines ticket counter.
McNaughton then walked to the Known Crew Member entrance of the east security checkpoint. A TSA employee tried to stop her from entering but McNaughton said she “knew her rights,” shoved the TSA officer out of the way and continued forward.
At this time, police say that surveillance video shows a knife falling out of her jacket or being thrown. They have not released the footage.
The TSA officer radioed in a breach and several other TSA employees caught up with McNaughton as she walked to the passenger trains that go to the terminals. She swore at the officers and when one tried to grab her, she dropped her purse and other items and yelled at the officers to pick them up.
Police report that McNaughton struck an officer in the chest and grabbed his radio to throw it on the ground. The officers were unable to arrest her because she refused to lie on the ground, so she was tasered by an officer. The tase caused her screamed and thrash wildly on the ground.
She eventually complied and when police arrived, they found a military ID and 12 grams of cannabis. Police charged McNaughton with battery of a law enforcement officer, cannabis possession, and other charges.
It’s unclear what McNaughton’s motives were as she didn’t appear to have a reservation or any connection with TSA.
This incident occurred less than a week after TSA agent, Robert Henry, committed suicide in the airport.
